Political party leaders have been encouraged by various stakeholders to utilize the Youth Manifesto as a guiding framework in formulating their manifestoes for the upcoming 2024 general elections. Notably, 60% of surveyed young individuals expressed a strong desire for the next government to prioritize job creation—a noteworthy departure from the 2020 Youth Manifesto, where employment held the second position in terms of importance. Other prominent concerns highlighted by the youth include education and access to loans.
Offering valuable insights into the 2024 Youth Manifesto, Solomon Okai, the Senior Programmes Officer at the Foundation for Development and Security in Africa, shed light on the evolving priorities and aspirations of the youth.
The shift in emphasis towards job creation underscores the dynamic nature of youth expectations, urging political leaders to align their manifestoes with these evolving concerns for a more responsive and effective governance approach.
“The priority areas identified were employment, sixty per cent of the respondents wanted the government to focus on employment and 58% wanted the government to focus on skill development and education. The third priority was on governance, and 47% of respondents and 25% on health”.
“So we tried to compare it to a 2020 Youth manifesto and we realized that there’s been a change in terms of the priorities young people are looking out for. In 2020, we had skills development topping the list then followed by employment and governance. But this time around, we have employment topping the list followed by skills development and then governance.”
Solomon Okai
Government’s Commitment To Youth Employment
Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority Pius Enam Hadzide said the government is working tirelessly to address unemployment challenges.
“Youth unemployment is a major concern, not only for the young people of our country but also especially to His Excellency Nana Akufo Addo, his running mate, Alhaji Mahamdu Bawumia, and the NPP, and it’s why several interventions have been rolled out to deal with the problem of unemployment. But you’ll admit that youth unemployment, resolving that challenge isn’t an event, it is going to be a process.”
Pius Enam Hadzide
He emphasized the vocational sectors such as YouStart as important to promote the country.
“Without a doubt, the government is taking bold and decisive steps towards the resolution of Youth unemployment. The focus on technical and vocational education in the long term is to make the young people themselves able to create our commonwealth, to create jobs for themselves.”
Pius Enam Hadzide
Meanwhile, the General Manager of Citi FM/Citi, Bernard Avle, has rallied the youth to actively participate in issues concerning governance. He advised the youth not to be a tool for Politicians but rather set their agenda for the politicians. He urged the Youth to understand the processes.
“Get involved, I voted a couple of days ago, in the local assembly election. You have to organize around what you believe in. So don’t just complain. Get into the assembly and get involved. Organize people around things that matter so the manifesto that we’ve put out, is not just for the newspaper to cover it.
“Now you need to engage the local community to make sure people understand what our priorities are and each priority may not be the same for all local communities because all politics is local”.
Bernard Avle
The Ghana Youth Manifesto stands as a youth-driven initiative aimed at documenting the challenges, policy options, and proposed solutions concerning issues that impact the well-being of young people in Ghana. While not a novel endeavor in the country, it has not garnered significant attention in the past.
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